[swift-evolution] repeat loop enhancement

[thorsten at portableinnovations.de]

Why not define a times() or timesRepeat() method on Int taking a closure to execute multiple times, like Erica recently posted and which is common in other languages like Ruby, Smalltalk or (I think) Scala:

5.times { ... }

or 

5.timesRepeat { ... }

That reads quite naturally and does not need any language extension.

-Thorsten 

> Am 09.12.2015 um 06:58 schrieb Chris Lattner via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org>:
> 
>> On Dec 8, 2015, at 4:43 PM, Daniel Steinberg via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>> For me this comes up when teaching children or new programmers. (Perhaps not a valid use case)
> 
> This is a very valid use case.
> 
> FWIW, “repeat N {}” was originally designed and scoped into the Swift 2 implementation of the feature, but was cut due to schedule limitations.  There is precedent for this sort of feature in many teaching oriented languages (e.g. Logo).
> 
> I’d say that the pro’s and con’s of this are:
> 
> + Makes a simple case very simple, particularly important in teaching.
> + Even if you aren’t familiar with it, you can tell at first glance what the behavior is.
> - It is “just syntactic sugar”, which makes the language more complex.
> - It is a very narrow feature that is useful in few practical situations.
> 
> -Chris
> 
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